Automatic Bullseye Dart Board Is a Total Game-Changer

Former NASA engineer Mark Rober has created a motion-tracking dart board that moves in response to where the person throw the dart. So, when you're hammered in a bar and playing darts, your chances of getting a bullseye are much better than your chances of making it through the night without running to the toilet to hurl.

Rober, an ex-NASA engineer, spent three years designing, building, and perfecting this dart board, which relies on six Vicon motion-tracking cameras and standard darts upgraded with simple infrared reflectors. It takes just 200 milliseconds for the computers powering the dartboard to predict the trajectory of a thrown dart, and an additional 200 milliseconds for the dart board’s six stepper motors to move it into position. Before impact the system is able to refine its trajectory tracking and reposition the board as many as 100 times to ensure the dart hits the bullseye."

Yes, this will work wonders when you've had too much to drink, but we think the technology could be applied elsewhere, too: basketball hoops, garbage cans and, yes, even that toilet that you'd otherwise miss because your head is still spinning when you run into the bathroom to vomit after a night of too much drinking.